17 Tips to a Better Mobile App Design

The war between designers, developers and user experience experts has raged for centuries… or at least 10 years. Should an app be beautiful or functional? The answer of course is BOTH, but the seamless integration of design and function is not always, well, so SEAMLESS.

But it’s really NOT that difficult. Read these design and user experience tips to make your app kick ass.

Design is a beautiful thing: But user experience, TRUMPS design because frustrated users means NO USERS. Each path to a task should be the shortest.

Keep it simple: Minimalistic design makes it easy to find what you are looking for and keeps users on track with their tasks.

No one really gives a damn about background pictures. They are using your app for speed, so focus on that thumb.

Time: Usually Users spend less than 2 minutes on an app. Make sure you give them what they need in two minutes or NO USERS.

App loyalty hard to find. Think about what people are passionate about: Food, Love, Children, Pets, Sports, Money, Health, Gaming. Now think about how many Apps there are that answer those needs. Enuf said.

Avoid multi touch functions: people just don’t have the time. For example, instead of pinching with two fingers for zooming, make it a tap.

Forget about that scroll: Just fugettaboutit. Content that is scrolled to is content that is in purgatory.

Nav and content buttons at the top of the screen. Like, DUH.

BIG buttons: for clumsy fingers. PLEASE.

Ambidextrous controls: Make them full with for the south paws out there.

Spacing Counts: if buttons are too close, mistakes are made, like “delete” instead of “save”. OUCH!!!